Posts Tagged ‘ontario

Activists Blockade of CP Rail Tracks Successfully Disrupted Olympic Spirit TrainRail blockade backs up trains across the country in an escalation of resistance to the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Olympic games

Toronto, Ontario – A group of activists from Toronto, Waterloo, London, Kitchener, Guelph, and 6 Nations ended a blockade on Canadian Pacific (CP) Railway’s train tracks in opposition to the Spirit Train.

Activist locked themselves down to the tracks at 5:00pm and hung banners off of the rail overpass on highway 27 near Elder Mills. The protest was organized in solidarity with the Olympics Resistance Network (ORN) and their call to disrupt CP’s “Spirit Train” that is traveling across Canada.

“Today we shed light on what the Olympics really stands for; capitalist greed and colonialist theft of Indigenous lands” said Winnie Small. She continued, “In stark contrast to Canada’s cherished reputation as a human rights advocate, our First Nations live in abject poverty; casualties of Canada’s apartheid policies, and its refusal to respect Indigenous rights to their own land.”

The activists successfully negotiated a peaceful dispersal after more than three hours. No arrests were made and the activists were able to leave the area without incident. CP Police Officer told the activists’ liaison that trains had been backed up “across the country” and that the delay cost the company “millions of dollars.”

The “Spirit Train” was launched Sunday Sept. 21, 2008, in Port Moody, B.C. where activists from the ORN, Anti-Poverty Committee, and the Native Youth Movement successfully disrupted it. To the embarrassment of its corporate sponsors, the Spirit Train, still rolling across the country, has been disrupted at several locations with protesters often outnumbering supporters.